P2P (short for Peer to Peer) technology belongs to a peer-to-peer interne technology. In the P2P network, individual nodes therein have P2P status. Each node, used as both a server and a client, provides services to other nodes when using the services provided by the other nodes.
During the development of P2P, three basic P2P architectures have been formed: the centralized architecture of the first generation P2P network, the distributed architecture of the second generation P2P network, and the hybrid architecture of the third generation P2P network, wherein the first generation centralized architecture has high processing efficiency but unsatisfactory expandability; the second generation architecture has fine expandability and flexible networking but low processing efficiency; and the third generation hybrid architecture in which the advantages of the high processing efficiency of the centralized architecture and the flexible networking of the distributed architecture are combined, is currently a mainstream P2P networking mode.
In the P2P network of the centralized and hybrid architectures, the processing ability of the P2P server is a key factor regarding that the overall properties of the system are fine or bad, and therefore is looked as the bottleneck. Generally, no matter traditional C/S networks or P2P networks, conventional methods for improving the processing ability of the system are provided as follows:
Method 1, servers clustering: clustering multiple servers to improve the processing ability of a single service node; and
Method 2, subdividing a service area: by dividing, a reasonable service area is provided for each server/server cluster, and the servers/server clusters of multiple service areas are interconnected and cooperate with each other in a certain manner, to improve the processing ability of the overall network.
During actual use, one or two methods among others are generally adopted to improve the processing ability of the systems. However, method 1 has the disadvantages of high cost and complex solution, and method 2 has the disadvantages of complex synchronization mechanism between the servers/server clusters and low efficiency. Also, what is more important is all types of P2P networks require enough users to provide ample effective resources; and the simple subdividing of service areas will lead to the contradiction of insufficient users in the areas.